Stress

Anxiety disorder can arise in response to life stresses such as financial worries or chronic physical illness. Somewhere between 4% and 10% of older adults are diagnosed with anxiety disorder, a figure which is probably an underestimate due to the tendency of adults to minimize psychiatric problems or to focus on their physical manifestations. Anxiety is also common among older people who have dementia. On the other hand, anxiety disorder is sometimes misdiagnosed among older adults when doctors misinterpret symptoms of a physical ailment (for instance, racing heartbeat due to cardiac arrhythmia) as signs of anxiety.